Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Censored 2010 releases top censored stories

From the inbox:

Censored 2010: What would you expect in return if you gave someone 64 million dollars?

Censored 2010: What would you expect in return if you gave someone 64 million dollars? You'll find the answer to that question and other puzzling social and political issues among the new top 25-censored stories just revealed by Project Censored. Here's
the rest of the story. The Top Censored Stories of 2008-09, edited by Peter Phillips and Mickey Huff in cooperation with students and faculty at Sonoma State University and numerous other colleges and universities, is to be officially released September 30, 2009. The Censored 2010 yearbook features the twenty-five most important censored news stories of 2008-09 as selected by Project Censored. The annual yearbook from Project Censored at Sonoma State University is available in bookstores nationwide from Seven Stories Press or can be ordered on-line at www.projectcensored.org. Project Censored was the winner of the 2008 PEN Oakland Censorship Award.

Censored 2010 provides over 400 pages of media criticism and analysis from dozens of researchers and academics with assistance from students on nine college and university campuses. “It is the most comprehensive yearbook we have ever released,” said Peter Phillips, recent past director of Project Censored. After thirteen yearbooks, Dr. Phillips turned over the directorship of Project Censored in the summer of 2009 to Ben Frymer assistant professor of Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University. Dr. Frymer will continue the thirty-four year tradition of researching and publishing the most important news stories not covered by the corporate media in the United States. “We are carrying on the research started by our founder Dr. Carl Jensen in 1976,” stated Dr. Frymer. Carl Jenson celebrated his 80th birthday this year and remains active on the non-profit board of directors of the Media Freedom Foundation—the 502-C-3 fund-raising organization for Project Censored. (http://www.mediafreedominternational.org/)

Also featured this year in Censored 2010, is the annual Déjà vu chapter with updates on the most significant news stories still not covered in the corporate media from previous years; the Junk Food News chapter addressing the most frivolous news stories that were covered in the media such as Michael Phelps smoking of an illegal substance and the presidential first puppy; and a special chapter on the positive news stories of hope and citizen activism so often left out of our corporate media.

Censored 2010 welcomes back the biting political cartoons of Khalil Bendib and contributions from Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting’s annual Fear and Favor review, the Center for Media and Democracy’s special report on pentagon propaganda, and the annual international report form the London based Index on Censorship.

“We are honored to have international independent journalist Dahr Jamail provide a strong introduction to this year’s book,” said Mickey Huff co-editor. “Jamail has won numerous awards for his work on the Middle-East and represents one of the best examples of independent investigative reporting in this decade,” added Huff.

As Peter Phillip’s final yearbook, Censored 2010 address many of the criticisms regarding Project Censored efforts over the past fourteen years. “We take on the long time critics who claim that Project Censored is a Left-leaning organization,” said Dr. Phillips. “Nothing could be further from the truth. Why stories about the powerful in government and big business are left leaning is beyond our understanding. It seems that this is just good journalism—the journalism that is missing in the corporate media—it could just as well be middle-leaning journalism or right-leaning journalism. Project Censored supports the news stories that hold the powerful in society accountable for their decisions and actions, which is what a free press is supposed to do.” Phillips added. Phillips was the 2009 recipient of the Dallas Smythe Award from the Union for Democratic Communications.

Chapters in Censored 2010 include topics on the Truth Emergency in the US, the hyperreality of television news, election fraud in 2008, issues from the World Water Forum, human trafficking, Lesbian and Gay standpoint films, and the importance of expanding investigative research to support media democracy. Authors of these chapters include academics and media researchers Brad Friedman, Aashika Damodor, Andrew Roth, James Dean and Andrew Hobbs.

All the top censored news stories for 2010 are listed below. Full text on each story is available online at www.projectcensored.org and in the annual yearbook. Media and college instructors may contact Seven Stories Press for review copies. (crystal@sevenstories.com)

Student Researchers: Jocelyn Rapp, Indian River State College
Caitlin Ruxton, Sonoma State University
Faculty Evaluators: Samual Mikhail PhD Economics, Indian River State College
Chip McAuley, PhD, Sonoma State University

Federal lawmakers responsible for overseeing the US economy have received millions of dollars from Wall Street firms. Since 2001, eight of the most troubled firms have donated $64.2 million to congressional candidates, presidential candidates and the Republican and Democratic parties. As senators, Barack Obama and John McCain received a combined total of $3.1 million. The donors include investment bankers Bear Stearns, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, insurer American International Group, and mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

2. US Schools are More Segregated Today than in the 1950s
Source:
The Civil Rights Project, UCLA, January 2009
Title: “Reviving the Goal of an Integrated Society: A 21st Century Challenge”
Author: Gary Orfield

Student Researchers: Rena Hawkins, Southwest Minnesota State University and
Melissa Robinson at Sonoma state University
Faculty Evaluator: Sangeeta Sinha, PhD , Southwest Minnesota State University

Schools in the United States are more segregated today than they have been in more than four decades. Millions of non-white students are locked into “dropout factory” high schools, where huge percentages do not graduate, and few are well prepared for college or a future in the US economy.

The international community has come out in force to condemn and declare war on the Somali fishermen pirates, while discreetly protecting the illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fleets from around the world that have been poaching and dumping toxic waste in Somali waters since the fall of the Somali government eighteen years ago.

One of the most lethal patches of ground in North America is located in the backwoods of North Carolina, where Shearon Harris nuclear plant is housed and owned by Progress Energy. The plant contains the largest radioactive waste storage pools in the country.
5. Europe Blocks US Toxic Products
Sources:
Scientific American, September 30, 2008
Title: “European Chemical Clampdown Reaches Across Atlantic”
Author: David Biello

Student Researchers: Annie Sexton, Gwendolyn Brack, Hallie Fischer, Bernadette Gorman,
Paige Henderson, Daryl Mowrey, and Taylor Prodromos at De Pauw University
And Caitlin Ruxton, Sonoma State University
Faculty Evaluators: Jeanette Pope, Professor of Geology, DePauw University
and Robert Girling, PhD, Sonoma State University
US deregulation of toxic substances, such as lead in lipsticks, mercury in electronics, and phthalates (endocrine disruptors) in baby toys, may not only pose disastrous consequences to our health, but also to our economic and political status in the world. International markets are moving toward a European model of insisting on environmental and consumer safety. Hundreds of companies located in the US produce or import hundreds of chemicals designated as dangerous by the European Union.

According to a study by The Center for Responsive Politics, special interests paid Washington lobbyists $3.2 billion in 2008—more than any other year on record. This was a 13.7 percent increase from 2007 (which broke the record by 7.7 percent over 2006).

Obama’s retention of Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense makes Gates the first appointment from an outgoing administration of opposing party to be kept in the position. Gates served on the board of directors of Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), which reported $7.5 billion earnings in 2005. SAIC is involved in everything from intelligence gathering to Iraq reconstruction for the Pentagon.

A 2008 study done by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that eighty-three of the top publicly held US companies have operations in tax havens like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda, and the Virgin Islands. Fourteen of these companies, including AIG, Bank of America, and Citigroup, received money from the government bailout. The GAO also reported that activities of Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) are directly connected to tax avoidance.

9. US Arms Used for War Crimes in Gaza
Sources:
Human Rights Watch, March 25, 2009
Title: “White Phosphorus Use Evidence of War Crimes Report: Rain of Fire: Israel’s Unlawful Use of White Phosphorus in Gaza”
Author: Fred Abrahams

Guardian/UK, February 23, 2009
Title: “Suspend Military Aid to Israel, Amnesty Urges Obama after Detailing US Weapons Used in Gaza”
Author: Rory McCarthy

Israel’s repeated firing of US-made white phosphorus shells over densely populated areas of Gaza during its recent military campaign was indiscriminate and is evidence of war crimes, Human Rights Watch said in a report released March 25, 2009.

Student Researcher: Rosemary Scott, Sonoma State University
Community Evaluator: Tim Ogburn, State of California Expert

In November 2008, Ecuador became the first country to undertake an examination of the legitimacy and structure of its foreign debt. An independent debt audit commissioned by the government of Ecuador documented hundreds of allegations of irregularity, illegality, and illegitimacy in contracts of debt to predatory international lenders. The loans, according to the report, violated Ecuador’s domestic laws, US Securities and Exchange Commission regulations, and general principles of international law

Israeli and international corporations are directly involved in the occupation of Palestine. Along with various political, religious and national interests, the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, Gaza, and the Golan Heights is fueled by corporate interests. These occupying companies and corporations lead real estate deals, develop the Israeli colonies and infrastructure, and contribute to the construction and operation of an ethnic separation system, including checkpoints, walls and roads. They also design and supply equipment and tools used in the control and repression of the civilian population under occupation.

Karl Rove’s chief IT consultant, Mike Connell—who was facing subpoena in connection with 2004 Presidential election fraud in Ohio—mysteriously died in a private plane crash in 2008. Connell was allegedly the central figure in a longstanding plot to electronically flip votes to Republicans.

The nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics has calculated that more than 151 members of Congress have up to $195 million invested in major defense contractors that are earning profits from the US military occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The US government plans to expropriate and demolish the homes of hundreds of Haitians in the shantytown of Cité Soleil to expand the occupying UN force’s military base. The US government contractor DynCorp, a quasi-official arm of the Pentagon and the CIA, is responsible for the base expansion.

17. The ICC Facilitates US Covert War in Sudan
Sources:
Inter Press Service, March 9, 2009
Title: “Aren’t There War Crimes in The US? Legitimacy of Global Court Questioned Over Sudan”
Author: Thalif Deen

The United States promoted the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) indictment of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir for war crimes in Darfur, in order to justify continuing Western exploitation and military interventions in the resource-rich region.

On October 17, 2008, three days after Bank of America Corporation received $25 billion in federal bailout funds, they hosted a conference call to organize opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Participants, including AIG, were urged to persuade their clients to send “large contributions” to groups working against the EFCA, as well as to vulnerable Senate Republicans who could be used to help block the passage of the pro labor bill that would make it easier for employees to organize into unions.

20. Secret Control of the Presidential Debates
Sources:
Open Debates, September 18, 2008
Title: “Pro-democratic Groups Call on Debate Commission to Make Secret Contract Public”
Author: George Farah

Democracy Now! October 2, 2008
Title: “No Debate: How the Republican and Democratic Parties Secretly Control the Presidential Debates”
Interviewee: George Farah

The Obama and McCain campaigns jointly negotiated a detailed secret contract dictating the terms of the 2008 debates. This included who got to participate, what topics were to be raised, and the structure of the debate formats.

Many states are in the midst of an aggressive action to push thousands of eligible mothers off Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), traditionally known as welfare. Families are being denied aid so that savings can be redirected in state budgets.

The western Amazon, home to the most biodiverse and intact rainforest on Earth, may soon be covered with oilrigs and pipelines. Vast swaths of the region are to be opened for oil and gas exploration, putting some of the planet’s most pristine and biodiverse forests at risk, conservationists have warned.

No comments:

Thank you for visiting

I'm Tony Schinella, an award-winning newspaper editor/journalist and radio broadcaster, currently living in Concord, N.H. This profile links to a number of my blogs including Politizine.com, the Taste the Floor radio program website, OurConcord.com, as well as media analysis and an analysis of the 2000 election. Opinions and comments are my own and not those of my employer. Feel free to participate. Email: politizine-at-yahoo.com. Copyright, 2002-2017, Tony Schinella

Winner, Media Award, from the Concord Grange #322 on April 30, 2012, for work with Concord NH Patch. It was the Grange's first ever media award. "No matter what it is, (Tony's) out covering it. He's honest ... he tells the truth and he doesn't fudge it, no matter what," Dick Patten, Concord Grange. View the video clip from the event by clicking here.

Winner, five New England Newspaper & Press Association awards for 2010 including third place award for General Excellence; second place award for Local Election Coverage; second and third place awards, in separate class divisions, for Educational Reporting; and second place for Overall Design, for work with the Belmont Citizen-Herald and WickedLocalBelmont.com.

"Tony Schinella is one of New England’s journalistic gems – a reporter’s reporter and sharp observer of anything that sparks his interest." - David Bernstein, political reporter, the Boston Phoenix

Finalist, Best of Gatehouse 2008 Newspaper of the Year [Non-daily], Belmont Citizen-Herald.

Winner, 2007 Appreciation Award from the Concord Pineconia Grange for work with non-profit groups and community service.

Winner, 2005 New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters Golden Mike Award in the Feature Story category for "Trains," an audio feature about the Hooksett Lions Club Model Train Event, for WKXL 1450 news radio.

On problems with talk radio, from a column published in The Winchester Star: "Schinella has written a worthwhile column on the demise of talk radio." - Dan Kennedy, The Boston Phoenix, Dec. 6, 2002.

On the lack of local talent in the Boston talk radio market: "[Schinella's] a bright, articulate guy, and he espouses a hard-edged political view that's seldom heard these days." - Dan Kennedy, The Boston Phoenix, "The Death of Talk Radio," May 8, 1997.